How often to clean brass

Go back to the 1980's, through maybe eight years ago.  I never cleaned my brass - didn't even know people did this.  Then I got started, and for many years now, the only brass I reload is brass that has been in my tumbler for at least an hour, and looks clean and shiny.

My question - do all of you clean your brass before every reloading session?  Every other session?  Every so often?  

All my brass is color marked, so I know I'm only picking up my own brass.  Am I being silly running everything through the tumbler when I get home?  I usually wait until I have 100 or 200 rounds to clean.



Second question - I have a Thumblers Tumbler, and it's filled 2/3 high with media.  I'm still fishing out my brass by hand.  I bought one of those plastic things that I can pour the brass and media into, and the brass stays on top, while the media drops down into a pail or something.  What is the best "something" to buy, that the media will fall into, so it can easily be poured back into the tumbler?  Is an inexpensive plastic pail what you guys use?

This style works well.

https://www.brownells.com/reloading/case-cleaning/case-tumblers-accessories/rotary-media-separator-sku100029276-122005-210819.aspx?cm_mmc=cse-_-Itwine-_-shopzilla-_-100-029-276&utm_medium=cse&utm_source=connexity&utm_campaign=itwine&utm_content=100-029-276

In use:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1aZGdvOuT0

Start a 38 seconds

The RCBS is also the one I use and it works very well for me as I tumble an ammo can of brass at a time.

I have an inexpensive press and universal decapping die in my garage where I deprime what I've shot when I get back from the range. I clean it before I bring it into the house where I have my reloading press. It's not necessary, but I do it.

I have a stainless steel basket that I use to separate the brass from the media. It fits in a Tupperware type tub that I found somewhere. I've had them too long to remember where I found them.

My RCBS vibratory tumbler recently died, and it was too old to be repaired. I bought a Franklin Arsenal that came with a basket used with a plastic bucket to catch the media. It came with the bucket, but it is the same size as one of those you can get at Home Depot or Lowes.

Thank you all!!!

Watched the video, added the RCBS to my shopping cart.
It should also get the pesky media out from inside the cases.

https://www.amazon.com/RCBS-87076-Case-Media-Separator/dp/B000KKD1TW/ref=pd_rhf_schuc_s_cr_simh_0_1/145-3395861-7086027?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B000KKD1TW&pd_rd_r=624b5f1c-84c8-40b6-8891-bd37e7fb3144&pd_rd_w=oOCBw&pd_rd_wg=LD9PK&pf_rd_p=67aa5820-8762-4202-90ba-881bb99c913c&pf_rd_r=A4GMJZ4NYNJX0424T89H&psc=1&refRID=A4GMJZ4NYNJX0424T89H

one of these and a 5 gallon HD can

just dump everything into the pan and shake a bit... you're done

https://www.brownells.com/reloading/case-cleaning/case-tumblers-accessories/turbo-super-sifter-prod80174.aspx?cm_mmc=cse-_-Itwine-_-shopzilla-_-100-029-276&utm_medium=cse&utm_source=connexity&utm_campaign=itwine&utm_content=100-029-276

jglenn21, I already have one of those, I guess instead of placing the order, I can buy a short bucket......


About my other question, do you guys always clean your brass before reloading it?  Is it just done for looks, or does it make a real difference?

I clean my brass after every range trip, use a vibratory tumbler. I used to use a sifter and then bought a RCBS media separator and never looked back

always clean mine after shooting

You want to remove any grit on the brass to prevent scratching the sizing die. Every time....

Thanks.  Makes sense.  I've cleaned for the past two or three years, after I got the Thumbler's Tumbler.  Speaking of which, it's so quiet I don't even know it's running.  The media separator looks great, but maybe I'll try the manual way first, since all I need is a small bucket.

As a test, last time I removed 15 primers before tumbling.  Big mistake, I needed to use a dental tool to open up some of the holes.

That's one really nice thing with stainless pin tumbling, you decap all brass before tumbling, clean primer pockets and flash holes with no clogs. In probably 15,000 rounds cleaned I remember one pin stuck in the flash hole.

I usually tumble my brass after an outdoor range session. When picking up my brass at an outdoor range, I might forgo tumbling it every time because it doesn't pick up much foreign stuff. I use a Lortone tumbler and a cat litter sifter to separate the media from the brass. Mine is something like this: https://www.amazon.com/Sifting-Litter-Frame-Kitty-Clean/dp/B01NAR4Y38/ref=sr_1_21?keywords=cat+sifter+litter+box&qid=1561639152&s=pet-supplies&sr=1-21

I clean my brass every time. Switched to a sonic cleaner a few years ago when my lead levels were a little high. I'll occasionally polish cleaned brass  with corn cob and nu finish but I do it less and less.

Greetings,

I clean after each firing.

Stainless Steel pins in a Lortone tumbler.

The dish soap I use leaves a slight residue on the brass that makes reloading much smoother.

Cheers,

Dave

Personally, I clean brass every time it's fired and before I reload. I don't like running dirty brass through my Dillon SDB, just seems bad to run dirty brass through a clean machine. That's what I do, yes it takes more time but I keep my clean brass and dirty brass in different containers and when the clean container starts getting low, time to clean a few more batches. Just my 2 cents

jglenn21 wrote:one of these and a 5 gallon HD can

just dump everything into the pan and shake a bit... you're done

https://www.brownells.com/reloading/case-cleaning/case-tumblers-accessories/turbo-super-sifter-prod80174.aspx?cm_mmc=cse-_-Itwine-_-shopzilla-_-100-029-276&utm_medium=cse&utm_source=connexity&utm_campaign=itwine&utm_content=100-029-276

I bought that "pan" a couple of years ago.  Got a 5-gallon bucket, and everything works splendidly.  No muss, no fuss, one hour tumbling is enough, and   after stirring the brass around for a couple of minutes, all me media come out of them.  I found it useful to lift them up and "pour" onto a different part of the pan, because they all seemed to want to sit in the pan flat side down.  They need to get inverted to get emptied.  Inexpensive, and it works fine, for the quantity I'm doing. 

Thanks again for the suggestion/reminder.   :-)

Don’t forget the

I am OCD when it comes to my brass.  First off I never pickup or use range brass. My brass all starts as either new unfired or as factory loads so that I know the history of it.  Carries over from loading rifle ammo much to long before getting into pistol shooting.  All of my brass gets the flash hole reamed to knock off the burr on the inside.  Brass that has been fired all gets deprimed using a single stage press.  From there it goes to the tumbler where I use the liquid method and stainlees steel pins.  I know it is not neccessary but it sure looks pretty and if it looks pretty you feel better about your loads.  After the brass has air dried I run it through a short run of corn cob media with Flitz.  After that it is then ran through a short run of untreated corn cob just to put a final shiny bright luster on it.  Is all this needed? Nope!!! But like I said it sure looks pretty!  On a serious note regardless of how you clean your brass I am a firm believer that it does need some process of cleaning.  Which ever method you chose to use the primer pocket should be cleaned somewhere in the process to ensure solid primer strikes and consistent ignition.  Always, always check the primer pocket to ensure it is not blocked with corn cob or steel pins.  I know this has gotten to the stage of being long but like I said in the opening line I am OCD about my brass!!!

I need to buy some masks, but I do the dirty stuff outside on my balcony, so I've got mostly fresh air.

I run my brass through a dry tumbler with corn cob media for two or three hours so I don’t get crud in my die, then size/deprime and then it is into a wet tumbler with some ArmorAll Wash and Wax and Lemi-Shine for 3 1/2 hours. Even the flash holes are clean as can be. The pretty much look brand new.

Seems like a lot but when it is in the tumbler I am working on something else so getting it out of the wet tumbler, rinsing and laying it out to dry is the most time I spend and that is only 20 minutes.